The shocking findings in this survey of 900 kids will give you pause to ponder!

A recent survey reveals some rather disturbing information about how children are changing.

1. 63% of children do not like to share anything, which is a shocking figure as social skills at such a young age are already about fulfilling individual needs and therefore their personality will have more shades of selfishness.

2. 73% of children would rather share with friends than with siblings highlighting weak family attachments.

3. A trend of alienation and lack of social skills was noted as 55% responded that they would rather spend time with screens than reading or with friends.

4. When asked how they will react if they see a bird lying on the ground wounded, 45% of children answered with a shrug and ‘what can I do?’ Not only that, 68% admitted to have hurt animals either by throwing stones or pulling tails.

My good friend educationist Swati Popat Vats launched a book called ’Look Who’s Talking’ (co-authored by nine-year old Shiven Jain, an ex-student of Podar Jumbo Kids) on how to explain the values espoused in the Constitution of India to children. I’m delighted to have been featured in this book and in her interview with Yahoo India Style Swati cautions that these very values are being eroded in society at a fast pace.

Swati shared statistics from a life skills survey on 900 children,  aged between five and seven. The survey has revealed surprising findings on how the core human values like sharing, caring, nurturing, enjoying, empathy and learning have now been replaced with more selfish attitudes like greed, laziness, envy, recklessness and apathy.

Education experts fear that this shift in values will not only impact children but will, in later years, impact society’s structure and stability.

Read this fascinating interview with Swati Popat as well as noted Pediatrician and author Dr PV Vaidyanathan about these alarming results.

Here are some excerpts from the interview: